The present invention relates to improved liquid smoke compositions as well as to method of making such compositions and, more particularly, to liquid smoke compositions including additives which prevent undesirable solids formation therein.
The use of natural liquid smoke solutions in lieu of direct smoking to impart smoky flavor and appearance to food products such as meat, cheese, fish and the like, has been known and commercially practiced for some time. Liquid smokes are generally aqueous solutions capable of imparting a smoky hue or coloration and/or a smoky flavor to comestibles exposed to the liquid smoke or its vapor phase. Conventional techniques for preparing liquid smoke solutions involve the burning of wood (e.g. hardwoods such as hickory or maple) and the condensation or extraction of the constituents of the smoke formed from the burning of such woods. Typically, the smoke constituents are extracted by condensation or absorption in an aqueous medium followed by concentration of the resulting solution. Exemplary liquid smoke solutions and methods for making same are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,106,473, 3,523,802, 3,806,609, 3,873,741 and 3,875,314. The concentrated smoke solutions may be employed in a number of ways to impart the smoky coloration and/or flavor to food products. For example, one procedure is to dip the food products directly into the liquid smoke. In another procedure the liquid smoke solution is sprayed through nozzles onto the food products in a spray chamber. Still other procedures include vaporizing the liquid smoke and exposing the food products to the vapors so produced and incorporating the liquid smoke directly into the food products.
Regardless of the method by which the natural liquid smoke solutions are made or the procedures by which they are applied to the food products, a universal problem associated with the use of liquid smoke is the tendency of the solutions to form polymeric solids which settle to the bottom of the solution containers during storage or deposit on equipment surfaces or clog liquid smoke spray nozzles. This settlement or deposition of solids is undesirable for at least the following reasons: (a) important flavoring and coloring constituents of the liquid smoke settle with the solids and are lost from the solution, thereby reducing the effectiveness of the solution; (b) the replenishment frequency for the liquid smoke solutions is increased by the losses caused by settling; (c) the liquid smoke solutions have an undesirable appearance; and (d) the deposited solids cause general cleaning problems and require production shut downs from time to time to allow equipment cleaning.